Kerry and the long-term cost of releasing terrorists

Kerry and the long-term cost of releasing terrorists

terrorist release protest


On Sunday, Issa Karaka, the Palestinian Authority’s minister for jailed terrorists, announced that in the next round of terrorist releases, Israel will release not only Palestinian terrorist murderers, but Israeli Arabs who murdered Israeli Jews in terrorist attacks.

As late as last week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was said to have completely rejected the Palestinian demand. But in response to Karaka’s statement, Netanyahu’s spokesman said only that the release of Israeli Arab terrorists would be subject to the approval of the government. In other words, Karaka was probably telling the truth.

The question is what has changed? Why happened over the past week that forced Netanyahu to cave? The obvious answer is that US Secretary of State John Kerry came to Jerusalem, again. And he forced Netanyahu’s hand, again.

Kerry is the Palestinians’ ace in the hole. He used the US’s limitless leverage on Israel to coerce Israel into agreeing to pay for the privilege of speaking to Palestinian negotiators who reject our country’s right to exist and extol as heroes the terrorist scum who murder us.

For the pleasure of their company, Kerry forced Israel to agree up-front to release scores of Palestinian terrorist murderers. And he did so in bad faith.

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http://carolineglick.com/kerry-and-the-long-term-cost-of-releasing-terrorists/

 

Can Israel say 'No' to the US? Yes, we can!

~by Michael Freund
The Jerusalem Post
January 7, 2014
http://www.michaelfreund.org/14265/can-israel-say-no-to-us

Amid reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry is applying mounting pressure on Israel to make significant concessions to the Palestinians, there is an increasingly common refrain that has seeped into our political dialogue which needs to be exposed for the fallacy that it is.
Israel, we are told by various pundits and politicians, has no choice but to go along with American demands.
After all, our relationship with Washington is our greatest strategic asset and we cannot allow anything to get in its way. Hence, whatever America wants, the Jewish state must more or less accept.
Needless to say, such an approach is not only short-sighted and misguided - it is oblivious to history and perilous to our destiny. And the sooner we expose it for the misleading oversimplification that it is, the better off we will all be.

To begin with, Israel is not a vassal state, an American overseas territory or a serf that must cower before his feudal overlord.

We are a sovereign independent nation with our own national and security interests, and while we must surely take into account what our friends and allies have to say, we cannot and must not lose sight of our right and obligation to determine our own fate.

And regardless of how short our memories might be, the fact is that on numerous occasions Israel has defied and resisted, flouted and even disregarded American demands when it came to matters that went to the core of our very existence.
Take, for example, the Reagan plan.
On September 1, 1982, US President Ronald Reagan delivered a nationally-televised address in which he called for a "fresh start" in the Middle East peace process. He laid out a series of proposals which included a construction freeze on Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and a transition period leading to "self-government by the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza in association with Jordan."
Astonishingly, the plan was drawn up in consultation with various Arab leaders, while Israel was kept in the dark until right before Reagan's speech.
But Jerusalem reacted quickly and with resolve.
On September 2, then-prime minister Menachem Begin interrupted a vacation in Nahariya, returned to Jerusalem and convened a special cabinet meeting, which lasted for three hours.
Afterwards, the government issued a communique that was striking in its audacity. It contained a point-by-point rebuttal of Reagan's speech, stating that, "The positions conveyed to the Prime Minister of Israel on behalf of the President of the United States consist of partial quotations from the Camp David Agreement or are nowhere mentioned in the agreement or contradict it entirely."
It went on to state that, "the positions of the Government of the United States seriously deviate from the Camp David agreement, contradict it and could create a serious danger to Israel, its security and its future."
And guess what? The sky did not fall in, the sun still rose the next morning, and Israel and the United States continued to be friends, even if there was tension in the relationship.
Several days later, Begin went even further, sending a personal letter to Reagan which should be required reading for every Israeli diplomat and statesman lacking a backbone.
With a mixture of grace and determination, Begin made clear to the leader of the Free World that as much as he valued the ties between Israel and the US, he would not compromise his core principles or Israel's national interests.
"Dear Ron," wrote Begin, "What some call the 'West Bank,' Mr. President, is Judea and Samaria; and this simple historic truth will never change. There are cynics who deride history. They may continue their derision as they wish, but I will stand by the truth," he said.
"And the truth," insisted Begin, "is that millennia ago there was a Jewish kingdom of Judea and Samaria where our kings knelt to God, where our prophets brought forth the vision of eternal peace, where we developed a rather rich civilization which we took with us, in our hearts and in our minds, on our long global trek for over 18 centuries; and, with it, we came back home."
After spelling out his objections to Reagan's peace plan, Begin concluded with a paragraph as piercing as it was heartfelt. "Mr. President," he stated, "you and I chose for the last two years to call our countries 'friends and allies.' Such being the case, a friend does not weaken his friend, an ally does not put his ally in jeopardy. This would be the inevitable consequence," Begin asserted, if the president's proposals were to become reality.
"I believe they won't," the prime minister concluded, before quoting from the prophet Isaiah: "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest."
Other Israeli leaders, both before and since, have stood up to American pressure and had the courage of their convictions, just as Begin did. Confident in the justness of Israel's cause, Begin, Golda, Ben-Gurion and others were willing to buck Washington for the sake of Israel's future.
So, I ask you, can Israel afford to say "no" to Kerry's proposals? Of course! Or, to borrow a phrase from President Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign: "Yes we can!" Sure, there will be consequences, and strains in our bilateral relationship. But Israel has said "no" before and should not be afraid of doing so again. We cannot put our security at risk and forgo parts of our ancestral homeland, simply to win favor with the powers that be in the White House.
Israel must stand firm and reject any further withdrawals or retreats, regardless of what Mr. Kerry has to say. We cannot return to the 1967 borders or allow a hostile Palestinian entity to arise next door.
Believe it or not, there are some things that are more important even than American goodwill.
Survival, I dare say, is one of them.

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AFSI's Chairman, Mark Langfan, responded to a Kerry absurdity in the following way:

'Judea and Samaria Are Not Vietnam'
US Secretary of State's comparison between Israeli-Arab conflict and America's war in Vietnam ridiculed.
By Ari Yashar
First Publish: Arutz Sheva - 1/6/2014, 2:38 PM

US Secretary of State John Kerry stated at a press conference last Thursday that reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) is possible, drawing on a comparison with the reconciliation between the US and Vietnam.
"I have personally learned something about the power of reconciliation," opined Kerry. "Last month I traveled to Vietnam on my first visit there as Secretary of State. I was a young soldier who fought there."

"The transformation in our relationship (with Vietnam) is proof that as painful as the past can be, through hard work of diplomacy history's adversaries can actually become partners for a new day, and history's challenges can become opportunities for a new age," claimed Kerry.

But the comparison between America's messy engagement in a foreign country more than 8,000 miles away, and Israel's struggle for survival in the heart of the Jewish homeland has not sat well with Israeli rights activists.
Mark Langfan, Chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) and Arutz Sheva analyst, labelled Kerry's analogy "insane," noting the strategic dangers of such a "reconciliation."

"I think Kerry should buy a map, and he'd realize that East Jerusalem is a short sniper's bullet-distance from western Jerusalem," remarked Langfan, noting the IDF civilian worker who was fatally shot by a Gazan sniper last week.
Langfan recommended that Kerry peruse his three dimensional topographic map, clearly detailing the overwhelming military advantage a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria would have in raining rockets down on Israel's population and industrial centers.

"The distance between Ho Chi Minh City and Kerry's safe, plush Washington DC desk is 9008 miles (14,498 kilometers), not 2 inches, and at this minute Palestinians are plotting to annihilate Israel," emphasized Langfan.
Langfan also took issue with Kerry's comments that katyusha (rockets) landed in Sderot and Israel's north "once upon a time."
"Rockets aren't a fairy tale, but were fired last week," shot back Langfan, arguing that under Kerry's plan katyushas bearing a chemical payload such as Sarin gas could easily be fired down on Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Langfan further attacked Kerry's Vietnam comparison in context of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
"Abbas has been paying Palestinian terrorists to murder Jews since the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre where Abbas personally paid the Palestinian terrorist Abu Daoud to murder the Israeli Olympic athletes, including an American citizen," noted Langfan, adding that the $440 million in US aid enables Abbas's terror funding.

"Kerry, cut your carbon-footprint, and stop these inane plane-trips," concluded Langfan.
Ironically given Kerry's comparison, an American professor recently asserted that the US administration would abandon Israel in a similar fashion to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.